This film has already attained notoriety on two accounts: firstly, Christian Bale’s vitriolic dressing-down of a crew member that became a much remixed internet hit (and to a certain extent Bale was right, except it is the director or 1st AD who should have done it, not an actor); and secondly it is directed by McG, he of CHARLIE’S ANGELS infamy. To be fair on McG, the Charlie’s Angels TV series was never meant to be serious, and neither were the movies. Whether or not they should have been made in the first place is another discussion best left for the whole “remakes and the decline of Hollywood” debate. McG is also exec producer of the excellent Supernatural TV series, in which he was parodied as a ruthless horror film director in one episode (Season 2 Hollywood Babylon). The question is; is his helming of this iconic franchise defensible? Could it be worse than the previous outing?
Whether it will revive the franchise is another matter, but it is a solid enough actioner that stands on its own as a post-apocalyptic flick. And that’s the clue. This is set after the Judgment Day that the original films (and TV series) were trying to avert. Of course, with all the time-travel paradoxes we have to assume that this is original future that the Terminators were sent back from, and follows on from T3 (by the same writers as this latest chapter). John Connor (Christian Bale) is leading the Rebel Alliance (oops wrong film), I mean the Resistance, against Skynet and their Terminator army. The last raid didn’t go as well as it should have, although it made for some spectacular action sequences, and Connor is the only survivor. Or he thought he was because out of the ashes comes death row criminal Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington), who is completely unaware of what has happened to the world in the intervening years since he was “put to death”. In his roaming through the decimated landscape he encounters a young resistance fighter called Kyle Reese, a pivotal character in the whole Terminator saga, and it is up to Connor and Wright to make sure Reese survives the planned onslaught on Skynet central. Cue plenty of explosive action, which is the core of the film.
This isn’t a film about character development, or even exploring the time travel aspects of the earlier films. In fact, it hardly even hints at it, nevermind explaining how the technology was developed. It does, however, pay tribute to the two original movies enough to make the story credible. This is a PA film, so it does have a different tone to the previous ones, and there’s no Arnie, as such, but plenty of unstoppable Terminators. The film has a solid cast, with Worthington standing out, and Moon Bloodgood looking good as a rebellious Resistance fighter. It’s actually a pity that Bale is doing another gruff-voiced, pumped-up action hero because he is a much better actor than that, and it seems to be spilling over into his real life in a less than positive way. However, this movie needs an action hero and Bale does the job, even if he sometimes lacks the requisite humanity.
In the end, this is a big, dumb action movie, and there’s nothing wrong with that when it’s done well, and this is. It’s definitely an improvement on the previous one, although doesn’t quite match the original two, and it is the best new genre movie in the cinemas for the next few weeks to come.
TERMINATOR: SALVATION is out on June 3 from Sony Pictures.
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